Foundations Fusion
by Brindheir
Summary: The second half of the Interregnum told. Story in progress...
1. Default Chapter

**Disclaimer:** Do not own the rights to Foundation.

**Note:** Reference material includes all books of the Foundation Series (including the Second Foundation Trilogy).

_Just working with an idea…_

**Foundations Fusion**

**Prologue**

_**Galaxia** – initiated from the planet Gaia by the former Councilman of the Foundation, Golan Trevize, as the last hope of humanity. It was later determined that Trevize's justification for his decision during what is now known as The Choosing at the half of the Interregnum held merit. Whether or not he and his companions acted…_

_Private notes of Hari Seldon, recently discovered on Trantor, spoke of a Second Plan. A plan not named but described. According to these notes, this plan was not of Seldon's creation but one of a mind greater than his: "A mind stronger, more dedicated and more patient." There was speculation that this 'Second Plan' would eventually overwhelm the Seldon Plan making the science of psychohistory meaningless. Historians point to these notes and the knowledge of Galaxia as being one and the same. According to the journals left by Golan Trevize, these correlations…_

_Whether or not Galaxia was a part of this Second Plan that Hari Seldon wrote about, it is clear from the accounts left by those who experienced the events directly after The Choosing that they felt the galaxy changed irrevocably. With the First and Second Foundation gripped under the powerful control of the Gaian overmind, the Seldon Plan became all but a sham. A humanity forever bound by the Laws whose origins had their start with the Four Laws of Robotics. These laws, briefly stated, are…_

_The justification from the perspective of Golan Trevize, at the halfway point of the Interregum, on the surface proved valid. The Seldon Plan called for two children to lead humanity into a Second Galactic Empire and as time went on, these children would begin to compete. A Second Galactic Empire according to the manner of the First Foundation or according to the Second. Each choice called for the one to dominate the other leading invariably to a copy of the First Galactic Empire and resulting eventually in the same sort of demise. Galaxia was heralded then as the more prudent move to complete galactic unity. _

_Three choices Golan Trevize was given and choose he did. And it was a good choice for it was the only choice he could have made according to axioms of psychohistory. What Gaia and their robotic originators failed to realize was that they too were a part of the Seldon Plan. Gaia had maneuvered Trevize to his decision with the knowledge that the First Foundation and the Second Foundation were ready to initiate the Second Galactic Empire five hundred years early, confident in their belief that Hari Seldon and psychohistory could not have accounted for the rapid rise of their technological achievements nor the growing ambition of the mentalics. It is noted…_

_Historians realize that without such technological achievements by the First Foundation or the growing awareness of the Second Foundation, Gaia may not have acted as soon as it had. And so the question remained: In the exact science of psychohistory, were such achievements the cause or the effect?_

_For there was a fourth option that neither Gaia nor Golan Trevize considered during the time of The Choosing. And yet, had they considered it, Seldon's Plan may yet have been derailed a second time for it was this fourth option that set the stage for the final half of the millennia-long Interregnum. _

_Ironically enough, the fundamental design behind the unfolding of the Seldon Plan for the final five hundred years was made public fifty years after the settlement on Terminus and the establishment of the Encyclopedia Foundation Number One during the first appearance of Hari Seldon within the Time Vault._

_Why this kernel of insight was granted to the First Foundation and only the First Foundation lead many to conclude…_

…_and as the galaxy's powerful players maneuvered and schemed, all with benign intentions (mostly), the gears of the Seldon Plan continued to weave tighter forcing both Foundations into a course that would either bring the Interregum to its end at the prescribed time or plunge the galaxy into 30,000 years of barbarism._

_On the one hand: absolute control by an overmind intent on moderating human potential. A clearly more palatable measure than the earlier technologically applied dampening effects but control nonetheless._

_And on the other hand: The culminating feat of the thousand year Seldon Plan, his words echoing from his first appearance, half a millennia in the past: "..But this I can tell you: Terminus and it's companion Foundation at the other end of the Galaxy are seeds of the Renaissance and the future founders of the Second Galactic Empire."_

_And so the dead hand of Seldon, indeed of Psychohistory itself, pushes events ever onward set to a timetable all it's own and towards a path that, when applied to science, becomes ultimately inevitable._

_The stage was set and as was the case with each and every person, government and will that came up against the Seldon Plan, victory seemed in Galaxia's grasp. A claim similar to the one Bel Riose, the Last of the Imperials, had made, being applied once more: A dead hand against a living purpose…_

_The first clash between the two plans occurred…_


	2. Chapter 2

**519 F.E.**

The words were faint, almost a whisper in his mind as he lay comfortably upon the self-warming bed. His lips moved with the recalled dialogue, a hint of his voice breaking through the whispered tones uttered.

"_I do not believe that what we call Seldon's Plan has the significance we usually apply to it."_

The sentence stoked fire upon a memory that seemed very distant. A memory where he was trying to explain something important, as if the fate of the galaxy hinged on his being completely understood.

"_..and they are based on the unspoken axiom that human beings are the only intelligent species in the Galaxy, and therefore the only organisms whose actions are significant in the development of society and history."_

"Golan?" came a voice penetrating his thoughts and the voices vanished. A moment under the sheets and sudden burst of cold air invaded what had once been comfortable warmth.

Golan Trevize, former Councilman of Terminus, rolled over letting out a groan. Mornings on Comporellon were things to be avoided at his age, or at least postponed until such a time as the people figured out a way to better heat their homes or water.

Actually, it was the water.

In the nearly twenty years he had resided on Comporellon, he had yet to get used to the frigid showers trying to put off their cold barrage for as long as possible.

"Golan?" came the voice again laced with more authority this time. His eyes snapped open and he sat up so quickly that the voice let out a startled laugh.

"I hear and obey Madam Minister of Transportation," he droned through the haze of sleep that still permeated but was slowly retreating the more active he was becoming.

Mitza Lizalor-Trevize, former Minister of Transportation, walked over and kissed Golan gently and began to resume her duties of getting ready for the day's activities.

"We have to attend the Hall of Science today for the NuGen Conference as the guests of honor." she said reminding him that there was a reason to face the cold water shower. Shivering in anticipation, he slipped up from the bed and as he began to make his own preparations asked after a very male fashion, "Do we have to attend?"

As she dressed, he heard the smile in her voice, "I would say, since this is more a celebration of the ideas and creativity that stemming from your donation of the gravitic Far Star, that this is your fault."

Golan grunted again. "I knew I'd suffer for that sooner or later."

"I would hardly call it suffering! Especially since you are being credited with single handedly helping us experience our first technological renaissance. You'll be the man of the hour and have the attentions of many young women in attendance."

Even though they joked about it, he heard the warning in her voice even if it was now delivered unconsciously.

Even then he growled out, "I didn't come back for that." The silence that followed told Trevize that he had earned points off of that statement and relished the thought of cashing in later.

Then he stepped into the fresher and pushed the hated button enveloping his positive thoughts with the screams of torture as his aging body felt the shock of the cold water strike.

"I am going to have a heart attack one of these days!" he shouted over the spray of water to an ever amused partner.

And as he lathered blissfully, his mind bit down on the term 'renaissance' and thought absently, "_Where have I hear that word before?"_


End file.
